William Campbell
22 Milnor on Sanborn map. Buffalo 1925-Feb. 1951 vol. 2, 1926-Apr. 1950, Sheet 155.
Google street view of former site of 22 Milnor Street. Image capture date October 2020.
Reference to William Campbell living at 22 Milnor. Buffalo Evening News, July 5, 1922.
1940 Census showing Sarah and William living together at 22 Milnor. 1940 Census ED 64-104, Sheet 12A.
Image of Brunswick St. house on Sanborn maps. Buffalo 1925-Feb. 1951 vol. 5, 1926-Apr. 1950, Sheet 469.
Known Name(s)
Wm. Campbell () William Campbell () William Campbell ()
Address
22 Milnor Buffalo, NY (1939, 1940, 1941, 1947, 1948, 1949)342 Adam St. Buffalo, NY (1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954)210 Brunswick St. Buffalo, NY (1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1966)
Establishment Type(s)
Tourist Home
Physical Status
Extant
Description
According to a Buffalo Sanborn Map from 1926-1951, 22 Milnor was a one-and-a-half-story house facing Milnor Street. It was located on the west side of Milnor Street between William Street and Broadway. The house had a front porch facing the street.
342 Adam Street is a two-story residence with the front porch facing Adam Street. The house is located between Broadway and Peckham Street. The building has a concrete block foundation with brick walls and a hipped roof with asphalt shingles. One hipped dormer extends from the front of the building. The building has two front doors, suggesting that at some point it was used for multi-family living.
The tourist home was located in a two-and-a-half-story building on the north side of Brunswick Avenue between Wohlers Avenue and Humboldt Parkway. This building appears largely unchanged from its 1960s appearance. The building has an enclosed front porch with brick columns and knee walls with numerous windows. The remainder of the building is clad in white siding. The home sits on a stone foundation and a strip of brick is visible between the foundation and the start of the siding. A large hipped dormer extends from the front of the hipped roof, both clad with asphalt shingles. A garage is present in the north-west corner of the property, separate from the main structure.
Detailed History
William A. Campbell was born in Tennessee in 1887. He moved into 22 Milnor St. in Buffalo, where he lived from at least 1922 to 1940. Between 1930 and 1940, William married Sarah M. from Georgia, and she moved in with him at 22 Milnor St. The couple also housed lodgers in their house. In 1942, Campbell purchased a house at 342 Adams Street, where he would move with Sarah. Campbell is listed on the 1930 census as working as a roller at a brass company foundry, then in the 1940 census as working as a tinner. He may have also worked as a newspaper distributor for Buffalo’s first Black newspaper.
Located in the East Side neighborhood of Emslie, William Campbell's home was listed in the Green Book as a tourist home during the early 1950s. Campbell, originally from Tennessee, purchased the building in 1942. According to a 1966 newspaper report, he worked as a distributor for Buffalo’s first national Negro newspaper for over 40 years, though census records list him as a roller and later tinner at a foundry. William Campbell and his wife Sarah moved to 210 Brunswick Blvd. in the early 1960s. The Adams Street property was sold in 1980 to Ambrose and Lena Marsh. Today, the building is used as a home for multi-family living.
William Campbell and his wife Sarah moved to this home from their address at 342 Adams Street in the early 1960s. The Campbells' house is listed as a tourist home in the Green Book. In 1966, William and Sarah were awarded the Chamber of Commerce’s $125 prize for Yule Season decoration of this house. A photograph of the home appeared in the Buffalo Criterion. The house is currently a private residence.
The Milnor Street location has been demolished, but the but the Adam Street and Brunswick Street sites are extant.
